Fuxian Lake |
Travel in Yunnan | |||
Fuxian Lake (fǔ xiān hú 抚仙湖) is located in the area connecting Chenjiang (chéng jiāng 澄江), Jiangchuan (jiāng chuān 江川) and Huaning (huá níng 华宁) counties. It is about 60 kilometers from Kunming (kūn míng 昆明). The total area of Fuxian Lake valley is 1,084 square kilometers. Here, the land is fertile and abounds with various local products: rice, wheat, broad beans, tobacco and rape-seed. It is the well-known center of Yunnan tobacco in China. It is a glittering pearl in the Yunnan-Guizhou plateau. Fuxian lake has a shape of inverted gourd. It covers an area of 212 square km. With the deepest point of the 157.8 meters and the average depth of 87 meters, Fuxian Lake ranks the 1st in Yunnan and the 2nd in china in terms of depth, it is second only to the deepest lake in china - the volcanic crater lake of Changbai mountain (cháng bái shān tiān chí 长白山天池) in northeast china. It is the 3rd largest lake in Yunnan Province (the largest lake in Yunnan is the Dianchi lake (diān chí 滇池) and the 2nd largest one is Erhai lake (ěr hǎi 洱海). Its total water capacity is 18.9 billion cubic meters which is 12 times of Dianchi lake and 6 times of Erhai lake.
The name of the lake -Fuxian- means to attract immortals. It is said that rocks resembling two immortals stand in the southeastern beach of the lake. It seems to indicate that the lake is so charming that everyone including immortals would be completely enchanted with it. The main scenic spots around Fuxian Lake include Luchong village (lù chōng cūn 禄充村) in the west, the Hot water pond (rè shuǐ táng 热水塘) in the east, Xiangbiling Hill (xiàng bí lǐng 象鼻岭) in the north, Haimei river (hǎi mén hé 海门河) and Gushan island (gū shān 孤山) in the south.
Attractions Gushan Island
Location: Fuxiang Lake
Haimen River
Location: Haimen Village, Longjie Town, Jiangchuang County, Yuxi
Luchong Village Lying in the weatern shore of Fuxian Lake, Luchong village is reputed for its tranquil beach, banian trees and hospitable villagers. Here people can enjoy the beautiful scenery of Fuxian lake and penholder-shaped Bijia hill (bǐ jià shān 笔架山), also can play some interesting aquatic games. Location: 19km away from Chengjiang City
Specialities Kanglang Fish Kanglang fish (kàng làng yú 抗浪鱼) is one of the essence of Fuxian lake, which cannot be found in any other lake or sea around the world. It is a unique species. A Kanglang fish is less than 20cm long.
Living in the high quality water of Fuxian lake, Kanglang fish is delicious and fresh. The fish can be air-dried, salted, deep-fried, steamed, or boiled in copper pots. However this fish species is nearing extinction due to overfishing in recent years. So the price is very high, and the way of the sale is also strange. Due to the fish live in pairs, they do everything in pairs including swimming, eating and spawning like a couple of lover, so the local people sell the fish in pairs for respecting their love.
Besides Kanglang fish , another important local product is lotus root starch (ǒu fěn 藕粉). The local lotus are famous for being big, stout and sweet. Being made of fresh lotus roots, the lotus root starch is sweet, glutinous, smooth and fragrant.
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